Printing



J ly 6, 9 w. H. FULKERSON PRINTING Filed June 12, 1964 Fig. 2

% R m MY E 0 vU T mF My Mm United States Patent 3,262,235 PRINTING William H. Fulkerson, Troy, N.Y., assignor to Norton Company, Troy, N.Y., a corporation of Massachusetts Filed June 12, 1964, Ser. No. 374,796 2 Claims. (Cl. 51-400) The present invention relates to the printing of indicia on products having porous, discontinuous surfaces.

Heretofore, it has been considered impractical to attempt to print indicia on very porous, discontinuous surfaced materials such as open sponge or foam products or non-wovenfabrics. The character of the surfaces of such products has resulted in illegible print unless the size of the pnint is disproportionately large.

It has now been found possible to overcome this problem by utilizing what may be referred to as depth printing, utilizing one or more printing probes adapted to be inserted into a product surface and to transfer ink or other marking media to such surface and to the sides of the hole formed by the insertion of the printing probe. Utilizing this method, the indicia applied are visible and legible due to the underlying portions of the product picking up the marking media where the surface may be void.

Any of a number of d-ifierent types of probes may be used, ranging from a simple nail or wire to a hypodermic needle having transverse holes at spaced intervals in the needle thereof. The pro-hes may be used as single marking means or may be arranged in sets to represent letters, figures, designs or the like. Upon being coated on their surface with marking media and pressed down into the surface to be marked, they will transfer their loads of marking media to the sides of the holes made by their penetration and will produce legible indicia on the product surface.

FIGURE 1 illustrates a perspective view of a non-woven polishing article made in accordance with US. Letters Patent 3,020,139 to Camp et al. which has been marked with a design in accordance with the method of this invention while FIGURE 2 shows a partial enlarged crosssection of the article of FIGURE 1 taken on line 22 showing three areas where the fibers are marked by the printing probes 17 shown in phantom lines. In the drawings represents an abrasive pad made from fibers 11 bonded with an adhesive 12 and containing abrasive grains ice 13. The indicia 14 is shown covering an area of surface 15 of the pad 10 and extending down into the pad 10, marking the exposed portions 16 of the fibers 11 at a substantial depth below the surface 15 of the pad 10. The probes, when inserted into the non-woven web will push the fibers aside as the probes move down into the voids within the fabric, marking each fiber adjacent the path of the probe and leaving an extremely legible indicia as contrasted to previously employed surface printing techniques.

Obviously, many variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described above and, accordingly, only such limitations should be imposed as are set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A non-woven polishing article comprising a nonwoven web having a discontinuous surface; said web being formed of a plurality of adhesively bonded non-woven fibers; a plurality of interconnected voids within said web formed by spaces between said fibers; abrasive grains bonded to said fibers within said web and on said surface; and marking media applied to only some of said fibers and associated abrasive both below said surface and on said surface; said marking media below and on said surface combining to present legible indicia when viewed from above said surface.

2. A non-woven polishing article comprising a nonwoven web having a discontinuous surface; said web being formed of a plurality of adhesively-bonded non-woven fibers; a plurality of interconnected voids within said web formed by spaces between said fibers; and marking media applied to only some of said fibers both below said surface and on said surface; said marking media below and on said surface combining to present legible indicia when viewed from above said surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1915 Epple 1013O 7/1958 Owens 161-170 

1. A NON-WOVEN POLISHING ARTICLE COMPRISING A NONWOVEN WEB HAVING A DISCONTINUOUS SURFACE; SAID WEB BEING FORMED OF A PLURALITY OF ADHESIVELY-BONDED NON-WOVEN FIBERS; A PLURALITY OF INTERCONNEDTED VOIDS WITHIN SAID WEB FORMED BY SPACES BETWEEN SAID FIBERS; ABRASIVE GRAINS BONDED TO SAID FIBERS WITHIN SAID WEB AND ON SAID SURFACE; AND MARKING MEDIA APPLIED TO ONLY SOME OF SAID FIBERS AND ASSOCIATED ABRASIVE BOTH BELOW SAID SURFACE AND ON SAID SURFACE; SAID MARKING MEDIA BELOW AND ON SAID SURFACE COMBINING TO PRESENT LEGIBLE INDICIA WHEN VIEWED FROM ABOVE SAID SURFACE. 